The auditor general himself said today this has nothing to do with improper use of government money . . . There is some lack of clarity. The auditor general has made some suggestions on how we can be more clear in our tracking in the future.

So, basically, nothing’s wrong here, we just need to tweak a few (billion) things.

The audit people were in lock-step with the Prime Minister:

… audit officials chalk up the discrepancy to lax bookkeeping. The audit suggests several scenarios for what may have happened: the funding may have lapsed and never been spent; or it may have been spent on anti-terror efforts but reported as other program spending; or it may have been spent on program unrelated to security.

Basically, the money could have gone anywhere and been spent on literally anything.

I have no doubt (see below), that the vast majority of Harper’s hand-picked cabinet would gleefully engage in exactly the same things as she did:

Chotalia treated staff and appointed members disgracefully: harassing, screaming, spying on staff; speaking to them and about them in derogatory terms; impugning their credibility in front of colleagues; and contaminating the workplace by sowing misinformation about them. She belittled and humiliated, frequently reducing employees to tears.

“The result was a poisoned atmosphere at the tribunal, a place that, ironically, is supposed to place respect of individuals at the very highest level,” Dion told reporters.

But it went even beyond that, to outright lunacy, the madness of entitlement.

On the day of her swearing-in-ceremony — which also happened to be the day that a magnitude-five earthquake struck Ottawa — Chotalia would not allow staff to leave their 11th-floor office, compelling everyone to stay where they were so that the ceremony could proceed as scheduled.

She ordered one employee to carry a set of keys to the office around her neck — like a latchkey — “despite the fact that this person complained that this caused discomfort and pain,” the report discloses. She indulged in petty retaliation. She ordered staff to spy on an employee while at work and to report that person’s movements and actions to her.

She repeatedly attempted to terminate a staff without justifiable cause and tried to pursue disciplinary action against another even after they left the CHRT.

She maintained a secret file on an employee, entitled “Insubordination,” even though that individual had never been advised of any problems. She demanded that staff be available around the clock, to corral her non-essential BlackBerry communications.

She accused staff of stealing items from her when unable to locate them, many witnesses stating Chotalia regularly lost these items.

She ordered staff not to cancel a trip to Vancouver for a mediation session, even though the parties involved had come to an agreement. She flew to the West Coast and then transferred to a San Diego-bound flight for a previously planned personal trip.

The list of insupportable conduct goes on and on.

This shining beacon of the modern Conservative stayed in her position for two years, left to her own devices with Harper’s Privy Council Office (the people who are supposed to advise him on running an effective government), staunchly refusing to hear from the 26 complainants.

The only reason Chotslis was called out was because there are still some independent government departments out there that could hold her to account. Harper is doing his best to ensure that he and his lapdogs are increasingly exempt from not only accountability but even the fundamental laws of Canada.

Now have a look at Chotslis’ response in the face of these facts:

“I was chosen by a Conservative government, I am a brown woman from Alberta and the unions want to remove me.”

She then basically told the investigators to go fuck themselves and refused to cooperate in any way.

I was elected two years ago by the people of Toronto to do a job … This comes down to left-wing politics. The left wing wants me out of here, and they’ll do anything in their power to (do that).

In the fucked up world of the Harper conservative, it should be noted, unions are the same thing as the “lefties”, and that goes for anyone not supporting the tyrannical government or their agenda to sell out Canada and separate Canadians from not only their basic rights but from the very necessities of life.

His comments came as Human Resources Minister Diane Finley admitted Thursday that the government hadn’t conducted studies on the potential impact of the reforms.

As protesters were kept away from the Premier Tech plant where Harper was announcing a $9.2 million loan, the prime minister pointed a finger at unions for creating some of the turmoil around changes to the program.

“I read that some unions were saying we’re cutting seasonal workers. That is completely false.”

And just so you know how Harper justifies his crackdowns:

… Harper said the [anti-terrorism] measures are supported by “law enforcement people” across the country, and the Tories have been promising the changes for a long time.

“We were elected specifically to move forward on them, and that’s what we’re going to do.”

Toews’s department [while Minister of Labour], proposed the privatization of home-care delivery services in 1996, drawing opposition from many in the field and triggering an extended strike. He was also forced to deal with strikes at Boeing, Inco, and the Manitoba Lotteries Corporation, leading one journalist to describe 1996 as “the busiest year for picketing since the 1919 Winnipeg General Strike”. Toews blamed unions for provoking the strikes, saying they were conducted “for political, not economic, reasons.”

Seeing a running theme there? Same shit, same mentality, same results. It’s not in any way a stretch to think that Harper, Toews, Ford, or any other Conservative wraith aren’t treating their staff in exactly the same way, using the same excuses, refusing to find anything wrong with any of it, etc.

And just like all good corrupt Harperites, Chotslis was rewarded for her exemplary service to the government with a cushy new position in the private sector and a commitment by her Conservative buddies to refuse to discuss the matter or do anything about it.

There are still people out there who believe, despite all evidence to the contrary, that Stephen Harper and his greasy conservative cronies like Rob Ford are good for the economy — that they solve the economic messes left behind by their predecessors and, through tough budget cuts and austerity, will reverse the course of those freewheeling pinkos that left the holes under which we struggle.

Except it’s not true.

It’s not even close to true.

In fact, it’s the exact opposite of the truth — Harper and Ford directly caused the budgetary deficits they calculate today, either through deception or through massive amounts of irresponsible spending. Everything they accuse their opponents of doing is precisely what they themselves are doing. And they’re two-faced, deceptive assholes about it to boot.

In the case of Ford, his term started with a hefty $350 million surplus left over by David Miller. Oh, you didn’t know? Well, you wouldn’t if you bought into Ford’s lies and didn’t bother to read any news at the time. A year after taking office, Ford was running a $774 million deficit and blaming it on his predecessor. Ford’s administration has managed to cut the losses he created to yet another surplus totaling $90 million, and it’s expected to be about the same as that left by Miller when he left by the end of this year.

In other words, Ford’s “deficit” was a complete and utter lie he used to justify his ravenous cuts to city infrastructure and his attacks on unions and public services.

With the case of Harper, the situation is a bit worse. In the Prime Minister’s case, what started as a $12 billion surplus left over by a stingy Paul Martin has now been deflated to a $33.4 billion deficit last year. At present, that deficit is running at $23.5 billion and is expected to grow before year’s end. But just like Ford, Harper is using the crisis he created to cut jobs, services, and any semblance of what makes Canada great.

Let’s be clear about what’s happening here: both Ford and Harper directly, willfully, and purposefully created economic crises in order to push through their destructive agendas on the Canadian population; everything from social programs to old age benefits to employment.

These so-called “leaders” are straight up criminal scammers who won’t rest until they’ve subjugated the populace to the whims of their corporate masters (no doubt they, like banker crony Tony Blair, will benefit from their collusion).

The mega-banks that, through fractional reserve banking, create money out of thin air (this is no exaggeration), to lend out to governments who play ball, which in turn tax citizens and subject them to austerity in order to pay back these made up loans. Did you know that that same money could’ve been borrowed from the Bank of Canada at 0% interest? Seems sensible, then, to borrow that cash from banks at a much higher rate of interest while giving them the legal authority to lend out money they don’t even have (how else do you lend out $1000 when you only have $50?).

Doesn’t it?

Yet this is precisely the program that both Harper and Ford subscribe to, at one level or another.

See, if you and I started lending out money we didn’t have and then expected to be paid back — with interest — we would be jailed for fraud. When the Prime Minister and his buddies do it, it’s represented by their scumbag compatriots as just the best thing for Canada since sliced bread. Oh, and by the way, the taxpayer will be responsible for all debts by the Canadian government. And if you don’t like you debt bondage, it’s off to jail for you!

Bill C-38 is Harper’s so-called “omnibus” budget bill because the government is trying to cram so much into it — some of it good, some of it neutral, much of it horrible. This comes on the heels of other legislative doozies like Bill C-10 (the omnibus crime bill), Bill C-11 (the copyright reform bill), and Bill C-30 (the “Lawful Access” bill). Are you starting to see an ongoing theme here?

Among the list of things that our Fascist-inspired leadership is trying to get passed are:

Giving U.S. law-enforcement agents, such as the FBI, the same powers as members of the RCMP during cross-border operations.

Changes to environmental rules such as allowing the federal government to crack down on charities, including environmental groups, which advocate for better laws and policies; fast-tracking of big-corp projects through a weaker environmental review process; reduced protection for fish and fish habitats, exempting pipelines and power lines from the Navigable Waters Act and reduced protection for species at risk; laying off of over 600 Parks Canada workers; increased offshore drilling and on publicly-owned grasslands.

In response, a SOPA-like campaign is being waged called “BlackOutSpeakOut” in which some 13,000 websites are going dark to protest the ongoing scumbaggery of our federal government. Additionally, government opposition are doing everything in their power to slow down and kill this thing, or at least have it split up so that each part of the bill can be voted on independently instead of keeping the good parts in limbo because the bad parts have been glued to them in one giant bill.

When it turned out that the election was extremely close in that riding (26 votes, to be precise), Liberal Borys Wrzesnewskyj went to the Ontario Superior Court which ended up throwing out 79 votes because of “clerical errors” by Elections Canada staff.

When this type of thing happened in the past, by-elections were called because none of the rulings were subsequently appealed. In this case, however, Opitz has been dragging the process out for over a year and, despite the ruling by the Superior Court, he continues to sit and vote in the House of Commons.

Seems pretty simple; if Opitz is so damn sure he won, it shouldn’t be a problem to put that certainty to the test with a by-election. Instead, he wants judges to simply appoint him to office and, despite current legal rulings, continues to exercise his illegitimate power over the people of Canada.

I just had to quote the asinine verbosity of Rob Ford on this one, it’s just so apt.

According to the Toronto Sun, the loosely named “conservative think tank” Fraser Institute came up with the conclusion that immigrants are a big burden on the economy, mentioning that businesses are “not taking advantage” of skilled workers (clearly not in any way due to the policies of the Conservatives, both local and federal), and offer one of the most brilliant solutions I’ve heard of in years: robots

Specifically, “Faced with an elderly population in need of care and a shortage of medical staff, Japanese inventors have created robots that dispense pills and help feed and bathe seniors in hospitals.” According to the “think tank”, Canada should be investing in robots so that all of our elderly parents can spend their remaining years staring into the loving eyes of a machine while being poked and prodded and force-fed drugs.

Thankfully, the Cons don’t want anyone abusing seniors. That’s their job. They suggest that Canada could fire a bunch of nurses and maybe even doctors, and practically take humanity out of the equation altogether. These are conservatives we’re talking about, so none of this is surprising, but it does set a new bar for callousness and coldness, even by their standards. There’s no doubt what conservatives prize above everything else, even life itself: cold hard cash.

“This increases productivity of people who design robots and run robots,” said Herbert Grubel, co-author of the Fraser report. “We’re preventing all of that from taking place.”

By “we”, of course, he means Harper’s government which, when spoken out loud, is pronounced “left-wing pinkos”. And the first part of the sentence would really only make sense if the robots were pre-programmed with some sort of culling instructions a la Terminator, which would certainly make the whole process much more efficient. Not sure how this is to create more jobs, unless of course all that freshly rendered human flesh clogs up the gears, but it sure would keep the robot servicing peons busy and productive.

And after that, who knows…maybe a new food product on the market along the lines of Soylent Green? Think of how many problems that would solve!

Unfortunately, the Toronto Sun spent more time extolling the virtues of big boobs and guns than pontificating on this topic, which was of course closed to comments (thinking’s hard), so we may never know what their own in-house “think tank” thinks about such fresh ideas, but I think we can extrapolate their collective opinion: Robots. That’s it.

That’s it…I’ve had it. I’m calling a spade a spade and the federal Conservatives exactly what they are: criminal scumbags hell bent on destroying any vestige of what it means to be Canadian. For that we all owe Prime Minister Harper and his band of merry assholes a big old FUCK YOU!!

In case you haven’t been following our majority government’s shameful and downright criminal actions, or worse, if you voted for them, please pull your head out of your ass and educate yourself on why they are, and I’m not exagrating, trying to make Canada into something like a Stasi state or like something under Stalin. That goes double for Harper’s little pruned buddy Vic Toews and other Public Safety Ministers who have had an unwavering and constant record of dictatorial, freedom-quashing pronouncements under their belts. Here’s just a smattering:

Lawful Access – The charge for this bill, lead by non other than Toews, seeks to give police access to all your online records without warrant or justification. In other words, and quite literally, if there’s a cop who wants to snoop into what you’re doing, they can do it with absolutely no reason (not even a suspicion of a crime), directly in contravention of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Along with being given unrestricted access to your online activities, Lawful Access also allows police to install snooping devices on Internet Service Provider’s hardware so they can listen in on all your online conversations, completely against the highest law of the land, and against your very fundamental Canadian Rights. The Conservatives have shot down any debate on the subject, refused repeatedly to try to explain their asinine “but it’s for child porn” explanations in person which have been proven to not only be an outright lie, but have literally not a single police case to back up the claims. To add insult to injury, fuckwad Toews used a recent child porn ring bust involving hundreds of arrests as an example of how police aren’t able to do their jobs properly, and if you argue with that, you must be a pedophile too. Shit you not.

Torture – Canada used to be a place where you could come and be free of arbitrary government arrest, torture, and intimidation. Harper’s “Canadian values”, apparently, are contrary to this. Vic Toews recently popped his ugly head up and announced that the government is reversing its position on torture, ignoring even just the simple fact that it’s proven to not be effective in exacting accurate information, saying that not only is torture a-okay, we can even do it in Canada (but only against terrorists like environmental groups, so it’s okay). Of course, this once again goes against the Charter of Rights and Freedom, demonstrating that the Tories’ real targets aren’t pedophiles, terrorists, or online scammers — it’s you and your rights.

Mandatory sentences – The Conservative so-called Tackling Violent Crime which created mandatory sentences for a variety of crimes was, in a recent show of sanity, slapped down by a Toronto judge as “abhorrent” and completely unconstitutional in a case involving some guy goofing off in front of a webcam with a gun. He would’ve gotten three years in jail for that under Harper’s rule if the judge didn’t abide by the Constitution and Charter of Rights like she’s supposed to. Yet repeatedly and brazenly going against the highest law of Canada, apparently, doesn’t make the conservative government criminals for some reason. Only you and I are subject, it seems.

Unreported crime / super prisons – This was a project started in the days of Peter van Loan and Stockwell Day, Toews’ predecessors, showing how this is a long term plan by the Conservative government to destroy Canadians’ freedoms, once again without so much as a thread of real-world evidence to back up their claims. This particular gem centered around the government’s incessant push to build massive new prisons in order to prepare for all the “unreported” crime that’s happening out there. Mainstream presstitutes have tried to placate the public by pointing to the General Social Survey as being the likely source of this asinine argument, but failed entirely to ask why people didn’t report crimes; like, maybe, they didn’t think they were important enough. The Feds disagree and want you in prison, even if the “victim” doesn’t. It’s interesting to point out that the General Social Survey also includes many quality of life questions (how your life could be better), most of which go completely ignored by the federal government. No, they’re not in the business of making life better for citizens, they’re in the business of propping up mega-corporations against all opposition, all the while ensuring common, mostly law-abiding and generally innocuous citizens like you and me are made into abject criminals under their draconian laws. Let’s not forget the bullshit of the G20 (protesting in a designated protest zone? How dare they?!), which was operated under Harper’s auspices, which to this day is actively preventing and perverting the course of justice (but at least no one really innocent was affected, so it’s okay).

Human rights — Under the Conservative government, the concept of Human Rights is more or less a joke (see above), and the office of the federal Human Rights Tribunal which is bleeding staff like a stuck pig because of harassment and derision, the very ideals they’re supposed to be defending, is the very personification of the Conservative’s attitudes on the subject. And that is, fuck you, you have no rights, now cough up all your cash so we can toss your ass in jail for whatever damn reason we like.

ACTA — While the internet and public at large have expressed their seething disgust with acts like the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), Protect IP Act (PIPA), or Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), even managing to get the US federal government to back down, our own government signed up to ACTA months ago with glee and without discussion. In the United States, ACTA (created by the private, for-profit movie and record industries), was snuck in under the noses of the American people by making it top secret so that they wouldn’t be allowed to know what laws are being imposed on them. Sure sounds like it’s in the best interest of citizens, doesn’t it?

Anti-democracy — This is something that Toronto’s Rob Ford is learning all too well: you’re not the fucking king and you don’t get to just make pronouncements and have them carried out. Someone needs to step up and slap Harper upside the head and say the same thing. In fact, someone should place him under citizens arrest and have some charges placed against him (conspiring to deprive anyone of their constitutional rights is a direct crime!) Yet the federal government continues on their merry way, telling everyone there will be no discussion on anything, and fuck you, Stephen Harper has proclaimed it so. Say what you will about democracies, but there is absolutely no doubt that the Harper government is standing directly in opposition to their very concept.

And that, without doubt, makes Conservatives and their ilk supporters, directly and publicly, of dictatorship, tyranny, and oppression. This is the very same historical narrative that Hitler used to put Germany under his thumb, and the echoes of Mao and Stalin aren’t far behind. It’s not about left or right politics, it’s about simple Canadian freedoms which we all though we had inalienably enshrined in our Constitution and Charter of Rights, and which Harper is directly attacking over and over again, and with no basis in evidence, fact, law, or even common sense.

Note that on top of being just a few example of the outrageous, egregious, illegal, dictatorial, oppressive, and audacious bullshit that the Conservatives are pushing out these days, millions have been wasted to write these things up, pass them through the proper channels, and have them enacted. Not only are your rights being stripped away wholesale, you’re paying for it!

If you’re a staunch Conservative and still manage to support your scumbag government after reading some of these tidbits, I invite you to pick up a history book on something like the Nazis to see how people who support regimes like the Harper government end up. You can’t even say “but I was just following orders” at the end of it because you’re zealously behind it, and in that case, you’re no friend of mine.

Even if you’re ambivalent about all of this (meaning you don’t think it’ll affect you), ask yourself exactly how the Conservative government has made your life better. Are your taxes lower? Are you finding it easier to find a job? Is it easier to start or run a new business? Is your old age security safe?All of the programs and rhetoric being pushed by the feds are only helping to destroy all of these assistance programs. I mean, it’s all happening so saying that the Conservatives are not directly responsible for this (with a majority and many years in power), is a very nasty type of self-delusion. No, they’re not helping you, they’re not even leaving you alone, they are directly and purposefully making your life more difficult and miserable even if you completely ignore everything else. Or maybe you’re of the belief that your children’s lives should be worse than yours?

And if any of this disturbs you, please spread the word and let’s start to put the screws on this government. They keep passing increasingly illegal laws but because they have a majority, they don’t give a shit. But as we all know, ignorance of the law is no excuse, and being out and out criminal assholes even less.